Three O'Clock, Big Tree 1

[Otto]

As a parental unit of a freedom loving, independence minded teen scion, I'm always looking for ways to inspire the lad to come along on cragging trips. Nothing works every time. I've found that all I can do is just ask him, calmly, without too much enthusiasm, wouldn't be cool, and take what I get. This time it was a hearty "Yah". He will hereafter be known as angryman.

 

So we bundled off in the car on Saturday night, with tjmcd, packed with candy bars and Gatorade, and camped at the Three O'Clock Rock trailhead. Thanks for bringing the tent, tj, it was cozy in the parking lot. Cold in the morning, I brought the wrong fuel bottle, cold breakfast, thanks for bringing the milk and cereal, tj!

 

We warmed up with the hike to Big Tree 1, then it turned into a real hot day. Gatorade enticed angryman down after the crux third pitch; he did great on it.

 

angryman on the second pitch traverse

 

TJ on the third pitch

 

TJ laybacking on the third pitch

 

angryman rappeling in the treeshadow

 

angryman with candybar and Otto

 

Photo notes. Shot with a disposable camera, thanks TJ! Developed at CheesyMart with the $4 files-on-CD option. Resampled and resized in IrfanView 3.95 set to 400 pixels vertical, preserving proportion, JPEG "Save quality" set to 100, all other settings at default.

Original filesize of shot 1 above was 242Kb, result is 147Kb as uploaded to Gallery.

I am inviting comments on photo quality/size/conversion techniques.

[mattp]

Big Tree One is a good climb. It'd be even better if we went up there and cleaned that third pitch.

 

If you really want to make him angry, send them up the third pich of Big Tree Two on lead. The crux moves come 27 feet out from the last pro.

[Otto]

I seem to remember that, though I didn't have my 50' tape measure with me! Did it with Dave Schuldt last year. Anyway, I'm a long way from sending my son out on lead anywhere. He's completely non-committed to climbing! I guess the world of a teenager is so exciting and new that they don't need to seek out on-sight rock challenges for fun. I take him out so at least one in his gang will know what he's doing if they decide to blast up some rock some day.

[Off_White]

Time will tell. I took my stepson out climbing at various times since he was 2-1/2 years old. He found it fun enough, but not a passion, until he wound up in college back east and decided he wanted to be a climber, not just go climbing now and then. You know, learn to lead and place pro and go

climbing with all sorts of folks, not just the old man. We did a day of education at the Little Smoke Bluffs in Squamish (excellent place for it) and he was off and running. Now he's swinging leads in the alpine, doing the occasional trad FA with the wire brush in his teeth, ice climbing, dry tooling, and leading at the same level as me.

 

You've just got to play the long game, make it as fun as possible, and not push, just provide opportunity. You've also got to be prepared to be perfectly happy if he chooses something else entirely.

 

Last weekend near the start of the East Ridge of Forbidden

[catbirdseat]

Otto, what did you think of the approach trail after the workparty in June? Any improvement?

[mattp]

You are just looking for a pat on the back there, Catbird. Of course the trail is improved! It is great!

 

And, so far, we have not had the usual black fly explosion in Darrington. Maybe they are just going to start a little later than usual, but who knows: maybe global warming has claimed another ten million victims in the Darrington bug population. This is the first in over ten years that there have been no frogs in the frog pond on the Granite Sidewalk, too.

[Otto]

Right on, brother! Take the long view, I like that. All we can do is make them aware of things, and let them choose for themselves.

[mattp]

For what it is worth, my brother pushed both his kids fairly hard, like taking my nephew up some climb at the Gunks when he was three and, later, making the whole family cry on some long route in the Dolomites. One of his sons has stuck with it, the other not.

[Otto]

Yes, I sure noticed the big new blowdown blocking the trail, and the nicely engineered step up onto it! Thanks!